Did Kodak Really Hide The Invention Of The Digital Camera?

Once upon a time, photography was not for everyone. Cameras were large, expensive, and cumbersome devices that were far from user-friendly for the average user. Then along came George Eastman, providing the masses with smaller but still impressive cameras with convenient rolls of film to take photographs with. Since 1888, his company, Kodak, has remained a leading manufacturer of film-based media. Kodak may not be as big as it once was.but it is still very active and has expanded its offerings to include all the innovations that have emerged since its founding.

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Centuries after the invention of photography, digital photography has become the most common form of image capture. There might be debate about which is better: film or digital for raising the level of photographybut there’s no doubt that digital technology has made it easier than ever to capture images and videos with vibrant detail and vibrant colors. Although Kodak has maintained its roots as a supplier of film and film cameras, it has fully embraced the digital trend.

This may come as a surprise, given the oft-touted claim that Kodak hid the creation of the digital camera decades ago. Here’s what we’ve learned about how company executives felt about the invention and why they didn’t publicly promote it in the first place.

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The history of the digital camera dates back to 1975, when Kodak engineer Steven Sasson introduced the first working handheld model. The pieced together device, consisting of circuits, parts of a Super 8 camera and a digital cassette recorder, among other elements, managed to turn light patterns into electrical signals, which were then converted to create black-and-white images.

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This toaster-sized creation deserves its place among cameras that changed photography foreverbut Kodak management didn’t notice. In fact, as Sasson explained New York Times in 2015, “they were convinced that no one would ever want to see their pictures on TV.” This was the only way to see these images.

It didn’t help that the prototype camera’s results were unimpressive: it took 23 seconds to transfer a small, grainy, colorless 10,000-pixel image onto the internal tape. Talking to PetaPixelSasson recalled that the then industry-accepted minimum pixels for a black-and-white image were 1 million, and for a color image, 2 million.

This new technology would take time to perfect, and Kodak was willing to let Sasson continue to develop it. The company’s first digital cameras finally hit the market in the 1990s for a whopping $20,000 price tag.

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However, the story does not end there. There’s another reason why Kodak isn’t pushing digital photography, and it’s largely minor since Sasson’s prototype wasn’t ready in the 1970s.

Between the release of the Sasson digital camera in 1975 and the sale of the first consumer models, Kodak had its eye on the concept. The company patented the technology in 1978, but it remained secret. Sasson told the Times that he could only discuss and demonstrate his work with people who worked at Kodak. There were concerns that digital technology could threaten the company’s existing business model, although this was not the main reason for Kodak’s hesitation towards digital products.

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Kodak flourished in the era of film photography, selling cameras, film, and printing services. Why would it bet on digital technologies that could wipe out the company’s profits if it gains traction? Kodak ended up making huge profits from other companies exploiting its patent, which lasted until 2007, but one has to imagine if the company had been at the forefront of digital photography instead of trying to keep film relevant for as long as possible, it might not have achieved would be successful. the company struggled as it had in the 21st century, culminating in a bankruptcy filing in 2012.

Overall, Kodak’s relationship with digital camera technology has been complex. It was largely shelved as an experiment that needed a lot of work before it went to the masses, and that could potentially threaten Kodak’s stranglehold on film products. As a result, the company was unable to keep up with the times until it was too late.

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